Welcome to the Fishing Report. It was a fierce weather night. Lightning struck and hail fell at our house some time early this morning. I think it was about 3:00 am. It looks nice outside right now. I can see fog following the path of Little River through town. I saw deer this morning and geese on the river. Birds are flying around everywhere. It’s like, something strange is going to happen. East Tennessee and the Smoky Mountains are going to be hazardous for the angler today.

Little River was a little turbid this morning. We only had 1/10th of an inch of rain in the gauge at the shop. The airport recorded .42 inches over night. I bet we got more than that at our house, a five minute drive from the shop. Flow in Little River is 276 cubic feet per second (cfs). Median flow for this date is 344 cfs. In the Park, Little River should be clear.

I don’t think I would go fishing today. There is some dangerous weather on the way here. The National Weather Service is predicting a 90% chance for severe thunderstorms today and tonight. They continue to say there is a possibility of a tornado and golf ball size hail. Thunderstorms are likely tomorrow too but only until 10:00 am. So, this is a good day to stay home or work or both.

Fishing is very good though there was a slow spell before storms came through here on Wednesday. We are experiencing some great hatches of Quill Gordons and Blue Quills. The water temperature was 50 degrees this morning at 7:50. The high temperature today will be over 70 degrees. All conditions point to great fishing except for these storms. Don’t go.

Lake fishing for smallmouth bass has picked up. Don’t get out in a boat today for sure. The bass have moved into shallow water on Fort Loudon Lake. I expect the same in Tellico Lake. I hope to get out on a lake next week and test some new smallmouth bass flies I’ve been tying all Winter.

We’ve got a stack of boxes, about 8 feet long, 3 feet wide and 4 feet high in the shop. The Spring merchandise is arriving. More will come today and next week. I saw boxes from Simms, Chota and Orvis. Simms decided to change their decision to never make felt soled wading boots. We and many of our customers want felt for the Smokies. Felt is safer. So, we bought Simms felt soled boots to sell this Spring. I’m sure there are a bunch of them in that stack of boxes down stairs. Chota never stopped making felt soled boots. That was a wise decision.

This Fishing Report was read by 816 unique people yesterday. I think that is a record. Over 5,000 people visited our website yesterday. Over 5,000 people landed on the main page of our online store yesterday. I’m kind of amazed though I have been working on the online store every day for months. You’ve got to expect some positive results from that. What started out as a 1,000 hour job is quickly becoming a 2,000 hour job.

Right now I’m working on Strike Indicators. I hope to finish that today. Next is Split Shot. Won’t that be fun? Reels were my favorite. I love photographing reels. It is a challenge. But, “split shot”? Floatant was kind of fun too. I put some time into that department.

I helped Warren and Cyndie Cornelius try to solve a website issue yesterday and last night. They have a real estate company called Why the Smokies? This new site is under construction. I hope we fixed the small problem. Check it out.

After this series of storms pass through it is going to cool off. We may see low temperatures at night in the 30’s and maybe the high 20’s. But, it looks like next week we’ll see highs in the 60’s again. It is beginning to look like Spring in the Smokies. Trees are showing new leaves and blooms. So, get ready for great fishing.